Returning to Reality After the Cruise

 

We returned my place in Croton and were exhausted, something that always seems to happen to us after a cruise.  I am not sure whether it was from waking up at 4:30 am with minimal sleep, or whether it's because we're just getting old.  A third possibility exists for me, as I've been coughing and feeling a bit achy today.

When we arrived at my place, we decided to rest a bit.  I couldn't fall asleep, yet I was tired all day.  Eventually, we needed to go out and get something to eat.  So, it was off to a local Mexican joint for dinner. We wanted to go to a place where we could hear each other speak, so the two closest Mexican joints were out of the question. So it was off to the "new" Mexican joints in Croton. We were pleased that we made this choice, as the place was busy, yet quiet.  We could chat without shouting for a change.  I ordered  the Fajitas while RQS ordered the Enchiladas Mole.  Both were very good, and made us put this place on our list of go-to restaurants.

Our next stop was at Stew Leonard's in Yonkers.  $120 later, I had enough food to restock my larder. But I was running out of energy.  After 1 more stop at CVS for cough medicine, we were home for the night.  Hopefully, I don't have anything more serious than a common bug....

PS: While at the new Mexican joint, I received a text from the firm supplying me with a new CPAP machine.  Why they would send this the night before my appointment is a total mystery to me.  So, I clicked on their link for a facial scan, and also gave them information on both my health and the CPAP Mask I prefer wearing.  Since I know more than the average newcomer to CPAP use, this was a waste of my time.  But, I know that certain inefficiencies need to be tolerated, so that adjustments for the individual can be made ahead of time....

PPS: The facial wasn't needed when I picked up my new machine and new mask. Why they bothered with this extra step befuddles me!

Filling a tooth and emptying a wallet.

 

$520 later, and I have a good tooth.  (I hear my wallet sobbing loudly, "Why did you do this to me?")

- - - - - -

When I last visited the dentist, he found a cavity in a tooth which had once been filled by a prior dentist. I knew that this was going to be a "big" (not too big) bill, as I was expecting to pay somewhere between $400 & $800 for the privilege of having my tooth repaired.  So, I scheduled today's appointment on the first available day I could get the repair done before my next cruise.

Unfortunately, I didn't sleep well last night, and was tired when I finally got showered and dressed.  Since the dentist sees me more in Marian mode than as Mario, I took the extra time to get ready to present myself as Marian.  So, I found a nice summery dress, and made the short drive to my dentist's office.

Arriving promptly at 1:00 pm, it took a while before I was led to the room where my procedure was to be done.  By the time he got down to business around 1:30 pm, I was on my 3rd dose of local anesthesia when he started to drill.  Even then, I needed another shot to keep me from feeling any pain.  At 2:30 pm, my tooth was filled, and my wallet emptied.

At least, my mouth was finally back to normal by 5:00 pm....

A trip to Mystic Seaport

 

My brother is temporarily unemployed for a month, and this is the first real "vacation" he's had in years.  So, it was nice to spend a whole day with him, driving to Mystic Seaport and back.  

- - - - - -

The day began for me by not having enough sleep the night before, and rushing to get out of the house in time to meet him in Port Chester.  Once he arrived, we took care of a little personal business before going on our way - he needed some hand cream, and I needed a pair of tweezers.  From there, we spent the next 2 hours driving to Mystic to visit the museum.

Once at the museum, we found parts of it closed, possibly for the winter.  Yet, it well worth the drive to get there.  On the way, we talked "of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings." There are a lot of things going on in his life, and it looks like he's made the decision to plateau his career.  This will give him more time to live his life without the stress of staying upwardly mobile, while being with the people who make his life worth living.

It was nice to see these old buildings and ships placed into a context befitting a nautical town of the 1800's.  At one exhibit, we ran into a docent who started talking about his visits to San Francisco and its local beer - Anchor Steam.  Once he mentioned Anchor Steam, I got into the story of how Fritz Maytag once rescued the brewery, and how the pandemic ended up killing the brewery off.  Next, we explored the rest of the museum, visiting an old bank building, an old schoolhouse, and old chapel, and a whaling ship.  It was very educational for someone not focused on maritime history,  Yet, with half of the museum exhibits being closed, it means that we will return someday soon.

On the way home, my brother asked me to do some of the driving, as his back was killing him.  I was glad that he trusted me to drive his car, and we ended up at an Asian place outside of Norwalk.  The food was good, but not spectacular.  Once done with dinner, my brother took back the helm of his car, and we drove to Port Chester to say Goodbye until next time....

Bored with the board

 

Today's post will be a short one with nothing to say that involves being transgender, as I am too tired to say much of consequence.

- - - - - -

One of the things I had on tap for the day was a co-op board meeting.  Normally, I find them a little boring.  But today, being sleep deprived, I wasn't in the mood to be active.  Luckily, others made up for my lack of energy - and we got a budget passed.

As usual, I can't provide any juicy details about my co-op's business.  But I can say that I was tasked with writing a letter that could stir things up a little with our co-op's managing agent.  And I did it in one take.  If one reads between the lines, I've indicted one person for not caring enough to his best for us.  If not, the email addresses a problem the co-op has had with the managing agent from the beginning of our relationship.  

Either way, we win.  I did my job.  And that's the important thing....

Sleep? What is that?

 

Last night, I didn't fall asleep until some time after 4 am.  As a result, I set my alarms to start waking me up around, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30 and 10 am.  What I didn't expect was a phone call from my bank to ask questions about a credit card which was stolen in Chicago about 2 months ago.  By the time 10 am came around, I was wide awake, and getting ready to drive down to the Bronx to see BXM,  (This was the main reason for the alarms, as I would hate to oversleep and forget about her.)

There were several things I had on the docket for today.  First was a call into my 401k custodian to see whether my distribution check was cut (or not). Next, was a visit to BXM.  Finally, I had to restock my refrigerator with fresh food, and this would likely mean a trip to Trader Joe's  Given that I had to get the 401k check cut before year end, I logged onto the 401k site and found that the 401k check had been cut overnight, and that it should be in my mailbox shortly after the New Year.  Whew!  Now, I could get ready to deal with things I wanted to deal with today, such as lunch with BXM, food shopping, and taking care of laundry.

- - - - - -

I was running a few minutes late to meet up with BXM, and hit a traffic jam on the Saw Mill Parkway at the Bronx border.  (No wonder why my GPS kept telling me to get on a toll road,  the NYS Thruway, instead of taking the more direct and free route to Riverdale.)  She looked better than I remembered, in part because life has been going well for her as of late - and it shows on her face.  I told her about what has been going on in my life since we last met, and she told me of what's been going on in hers. (Not too much or too little, as her job is very rewarding and takes up a lot of her time.)

On the way home, I passed by the Saw Mill's traffic jam (the trucks were still blocking one lane of the road) and proceeded to Trader Joe's.  This was a big shopping run, as I broke the $50 barrier and came close to spending $75.  But I still needed to go to Foodtown for some mayonnaise, and spent another $20 while there.  Thankfully, today's shopping run will last me into the weekend.

 

Chicago Girls Trip - The Aftermath

Now that I returned from Chicago, I had to take care of many things related to the theft of my wallet.  First, I had to call the remaining credit card companies that I couldn't reach on Monday to close the accounts to new transactions.  Then, I had to replace the documents I had kept in my wallet related to my driver's license, car registration and car insurance. Following that, I had to visit two banks to make sure that the correct cards were cancelled, and that new ones would be on order.  For all of these tasks, I was glad to have my US Passport handy, as this would serve as government issued photo ID for every procedure that requires photo identification,

- - - - - -

I  should feel more exhausted than I do right now.  But I think I'm running on a steady flow of Adrenalin in my arteries.  When I texted RQS, STX, and JTX, they told me that I accomplished a lot in a short day.  In reality, one can accomplish a lot if one has a good plan.  Although I'm good at doing things on the fly, it helped for me to write down a list of things to do before I started out for the day.  This way, I would know how to adjust things when circumstances dictated a change in plans.

Just before I went to bed, I noticed that the fraud unit of American Express stopped payment on the wrong purchase.  The thief made a bogus charge to Target, and I made a legitimate charge to the Frank Lloyd Wright trust, and the chargeback went to the wrong parties.  So I called Amex at 2:00 am to get this fixed while I was awake enough to do so.

Monitoring both credit card charges and my credit reports will become a regular thing for the foreseeable future, especially when it's time for me to turn off credit freezes so that I can finance a car I plan to buy.  The big question will be: What kind of car do I want and how much will I finance?

Chicago Girls Trip - Day 3

 

Off to the left (mostly out of this picture) is a building called "The Rookery".  It is an anomaly, as Frank Lloyd Right was tasked with renewing another architect's work and did so in magnificent fashion - working in a style that enhanced the original architect's vision instead of obliterating it.

- - - - - -

RQS and I had our last breakfast with STX before going our own ways.  (JTX had to leave much earlier in the morning, as she had a 7:00 am flight, and couldn't be with us.)  We left STX waiting at the bus stop while we headed off into the Loop for a tour of the Rookery. 

Our trip into the look was uneventful, but my back was bothering me again.  But I was gallant, and soldiered on through an our of walking and standing.  We learned a lot about this building, and were planning to visit the Federal Reserve's Money Museum after the Rookery.  Unfortunately, my wallet was stolen, and I spent the rest of the day dealing with the loss. (I documented this day in a prior entry.)

Instead of eating a nice dinner out for our last Chicago meal, we ate some take-out chicken. But I couldn't relax.  I was still dealing with being hyper stimulated, and being in a vicious cycle loop of worry.  I couldn't sleep - and I wished I could all through the night/

I learned something though - be ultra careful with one's wallet and contents when not in familiar areas....

Out with the old sofa...

This is obviously not a picture of my apartment.  It looks too clean and barren.  But it represents how I feel, now that the sofa that I've owned for 25 years is out of the apartment.

But first....

Last night was another (almost) sleepless night, where I couldn't fall asleep to save my life.  Something was preventing me from relaxing enough to drift off to sleep.  And if I had a container of zzzQuil, I would have mega-dosed on it just to fall out.  So I knew that I was going back to bed once the junk haulers left and try to nap a little bit.

I don't know if any of my readers have had the need to use Junk King's removal service.  This is a franchised operation similar to 1-800-GOT-JUNK, where one identifies the junk to be removed, and shortly thereafter, it's gone.  The regional franchisee for the operation runs a side business in selling second hand goods and estate sales - Revivals.  It's a nice synergy (I hate that word, as it is overused to justify many corporate mergers) of two complementary businesses.

This morning, 3 men came to remove my sofa - at exactly 10 am (as scheduled).  I knew that getting the sofa out of the apartment would take a lot of effort, but I wasn't letting the cat out of the bag.  By the time they figured out how to get the sofa out, they had to remove the sofa's stump legs with a pry-bar and sledge hammer, then removing the entryway door to get the sofa out.  (It wasn't this hard to get the sofa into my place 25 years ago, as I only remember having to remove the door.  But I digress.)  Once they got the sofa out the door, they were gone in 5 minutes.  I paid the bill, thanked the 3 men, and then went back to my bed for a nap.

- - - - - -

Waking up at 2 pm, I knew that this would not be a day spent in Marian mode.  I had a co-op board meeting scheduled for 6 pm, and needed to present as Mario for that.  So, I reluctantly got dressed as Mario and took care of some chores before the board meeting.

The board meeting went quickly, and I was able to go out afterward to pick up some outlet extenders at Lowe's  One problem, these aren't the type one permantly attaches to the wall outlet.  So I will have to get different ones tomorrow.

Lunch with a friend from the Census

 

Not getting enough sleep has become a habit with me, and my body keeps waking me up with the sun, only to have me hit the virtual snooze bar to rest another hour or so.  But today was different.  As much as I didn't want to get up today, I ended up doing so as I had a lunch date scheduled with a friend I met while working at the census bureau and I didn't want to disappoint her.

- - - - - -

My friend, CCS, is a member of Mensa, and her world intersected with mine in more than one way. When we met at the Mexican restaurant down the hill, she sent greetings from some I dated a long time ago.  (There wasn't much chemistry between me and the woman I dated.  She lived on Manhattan's West Side and I lived where I live now.  Dating her would be a headache that neither of us needed, as I was starting to come out as trans at the time. I just wonder how my name came up at CCS's out of town conference.) And then, we got down to ordering lunch....

Over lunch, we chatted about many things: my travel plans, her insurance issues, politics, and life in general.  She's the type of friend who accepts me for who and what I am.  And I am grateful to have this friendship.  CCS and Vicki will be the people I'm most likely to call when I finally get around to scheduling another colonoscopy, as these are the two friends who have volunteered to drive me on the day of my procedure.

All too soon, we had to part.  My next stop was to fill my car up at the local gas station.  I was glad that I was wearing a short, comfortable dress, as the weather was hot.  Given how hot it was today, I made the decision to be in Marian more tomorrow when I pick RQS up at the station.

Dinner with Vicki #1 - a short post

 

The original Lefteris Gyro in Tarrytown.  This is one of my favorite go-to places when I want Greek food, and the place where I've gone with Vicki #1 most often when we want Greek food. I've had a hankering for this cuisine for a while, and it was about time to go back to sate this craving.

- - - - - -

Last night, I wasn't able to get much sleep.  So I was concerned that I would be over tired by the evening came.  There were only two things on my docket for today - fixing the problem with my lab test bill, and having dinner with Vicki #1. When my alarm rang at 8 am, I simply hit the snooze button (figuratively) and didn't get out of bed until 11 am.  Since I was still very tired, I tried a nap for a while.  But I had to be fully awake for the first item on my docket - the phone call to the lab test company to deal with a billing issue.

Around 3:45, I finally called the lab test company and waited for 45 minutes for a human to get on the line. This was the 3rd time I reached out to the firm, and I reached a friendly person.  Once I explained the situation (based on information from my prior 2 calls), the lady saw that my Medicare insurance number was recorded incorrectly.  But even worse, Medicare was not my primary health plan in their records.  Instead, the insurance company associated with my former employer was listed as my primary insurance company, with no secondary insurance company on file.  So, I got the lady to correct this problem, and list Medicare as my primary insurance provider and my Part-N provider as my secondary.

When I was done with the Lab Test company, it was time to get showered and dressed to meet Vicki. On my way out the door, my next door neighbor complimented me on the dress I was wearing.  It was nice to know that I look nice when presenting as a female.  But I had no time to chat - I had to get to Vicki's house.  By the time I reached Vicki, I was 30 minutes late, and was glad to have warned her that I was going to be at her place by 6:00.  About 15 minutes later, we were at Lefteris Gyro, ready to enjoy a nice Greek dinner.  As usual, we had a great chat over dinner, and all too soon it was time to go home for the evening.

Hawaii Vacation - Day 01: Flying to Honolulu

When I first learned of Hawaii, it was as exotic to me as it was to the people who could afford to fly on the Pan-Am clipper.  It was the type of place that seemed so far away, and so different from the America in which I grew up.  So, when my Dad died, I figured that it would be good for me to take the small amount of cash I inherited and put it to use in having a bucket list experience.  This Hawaii cruise and tour is that experience.

- - - - - -

So, let me start at the beginning....

The night before the cruise, I took Google's directions to reach the hotel I'd stay at the night before the cruise.  This was a mistake, as the route had me going through one of NYC's worst jams - taking the exit ramp from the Major Deagan expressway to go onto the George Washington bridge.  This jam is caused by trucks slowly coming into the expressway from the far right, and having to cut over to the far left to take the bridge's upper level across the Hudson.  (9/11 screwed up a lot of things, and this interchange is one of those things.)  So it took me 30 minutes to travel less than a mile.  Due to the rain and poor road markings, I almost got into several accidents as soon as I crossed the river. I was very glad that I made it to the hotel safely, as I was concerned about my ability to drive safely in this weather.

After a night of almost no sleep, I headed off to the airport to catch my plane.  The first thing that was fouled up was that United wanted to charge me again for checked luggage, and I was not going to pay them a second time when I had the receipt that proved I paid for a checked bag.  So, after waiting about 10 minutes, this issue got resolved (for the outbound trip) and I proceeded to make it to the PreCheck line, where I had no problems getting through security,  (Given issues I discussed earlier, I had my concerns, and things worked in my favor for a change.)  But then, things began to change....

This was my first time "Flying Pretty", and I had problems that were unrelated to being gender non-conforming. My outbound flights had me flying out of Newark, changing planes in San Francisco, and landing in Honolulu at 3:45 pm local time.  Well, after an hour, they scuttled the flight, as they couldn't supply water to the lavatories.  There was no way that the pilot would fly the plane without water for the loos.  So I had to rebook my flights, and got a route that would go to Los Angeles instead of San Francisco for a connection to Honolulu.  One problem: I had to kill 3 hours at the airport before making my connection. I accepted this change, and rushed over to a gate 10 minutes away before my rebooked connection was complete.  (I had the agent at the second gate print the boarding pass for the second flight.)  

Eventually, I got on the plane bound for the coast, and we had a problem - a passenger had what could have been called a heart attack, and they were asking the passengers if there was a coronary specialist on board.  Luckily, that passenger was in stable condition, and the plane didn't have to make an emergency landing which would have kept me from making it to Honolulu.  What I haven't mentioned so far is that my bags were not on the same plane that I was on.  Instead, they were traveling to San Francisco, and then onto Hawaii.  Someone said that the bags would be at the airport before I was, and I was rightfully skeptical of that.

Once in Los Angeles, I checked my bag's status with customer service and they again said that my bag would be in Honolulu before me.  I was glad that I had a complete change of clothes in my carry on bag, just to be safe.  Then, I called RQS to catch up on things. After a nice chat, I killed more time at LAX, and then got on the plane for Honolulu.  And again, the pilot asked passengers if there was a doctor on the plane.  AARGH!

Eventually, I made it to Honolulu to find that my luggage did make it to the airport before me.  And then I finally heard the dreaded "Mr." word attached to my name when I was obviously presenting as a female.  Luckily, I got my ride to the hotel, and I was finally in for the night

I don't know how I make it through the day.

 

Lately, I've been feeling very tired when I get up.  Most of the time, I can blame it on not getting enough sleep the night before.  Yet, I continue with the idea of going to work at a 9 to 5 job, as I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have to be somewhere on a regular basis.  This morning, I didn't feel like I had enough sleep the night before, and I felt lucky that I had some "extra caff" coffee available for me to start my day.

It's still nice being able to go to work presenting as female.  I wish I could have done this throughout my career.  However, it was many times more difficult being out and about as a trans person than it is now.  But I can't complain about my past.  My 40 year career in technology made it possible to effectively retire at 58, even though I've had several jobs in the past 7 years that allowed me to avoid draining savings too much.

- - - - - -

Today, I wished I could have stayed home and slept for a while.  RQS was out of town seeing a relative, and I didn't have much to do when I got home.  So I figured that I'd try to figure out why my VCR  wasn't working after I installed my new DVD player.  Somehow, I had to have unplugged the darned thing from its power supply, yet it appears to be plugged in.  If I can't figure this out, I may look for a used player at a thrift shop, just to be able to view a few tapes I can't get on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Once I gave up (for the night) on the VCR issue, I took a quick nap before calling RQS.  She'll be coming home soon, and it'll be nice to have her here again.  However, this will be an interesting weekend, as this will be the first time I'll pick her up as Mario in several weeks....

I almost forgot to post something today.

 

Last night, I didn't much sleep.  So I was doing whatever I could to stay awake at work throughout the day, and was very glad I could leave the job at the end of the work day.  

- - - - - -

But first....

During the day, I found out that my doctor's office had taken care of some paperwork I needed, and that I should now be able to pick up prescriptions at my local drug store. (I later found out that the drug store had left a message telling me that my prescriptions were ready to be picked up.)  There is only one problem.  During the week, I live in Marian mode, and hate changing into Mario mode for just a couple of hours.  So I will try to find out whether I can pick up everything on Saturday, after I have changed back into Mario for the weekend (and after I have stripped off my nail polish.)

At times during the day, I check my email.  Vicki sent me an email to let me know that she received a call from me, and that there was no message.  No, this is not as weird as it could be.  On the way home, I tried calling a couple of known numbers, and my phone did not handle communication from either station.  So, I rebooted my phone, and all was OK after I did this.  Vicki and I exchanged a few texts, and we decided to meet and eat at a local diner after work.

On the way to see Vicki, I killed some time at the new Trader Joe's, and then made it to the local diner to meet.  She was surprised that I was there early, and we proceeded to chat about many things.  I mentioned communications I had with my ex-girlfriend and she wanted to get control of that narrative, but I kept control - and got out the points I needed to make.  (No, I won't go into these points here.  But they have been covered before, in details which she could accept in this forum.)

All too soon, we had to go home, and I was in for the evening....

I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink....

 

 

Today's entry is going to be short.  It was the first day back to work after a long weekend, and it was the first day back to work after an almost sleepless night.  AARGH!

- - - - - -

It took me a while, but I decided NOT to buy the used car.  It was a great buy, but I wasn't in love with the car.  More importantly, as much as I loved the features the car had, it had 25k more miles on its odometer than I would have liked to see on it.  So my plan for this coming weekend now is to spend time at Mavis getting new tires and a brake job on the car. 

RQS and I will be going to a party being held by one of her friends.  I can only imagine what it will be like when I introduce her to more of my friends.  I find it hard to believe that we've been seeing each other for 6 months - especially with my gender presentation.  Luckily, this will not be an issue when we see her friends, as I will dress as Mario to play it safe.

Since I'm tired, I'm going to cut this post short and go to sleep.

See you tomorrow....

Sleep Problems

 

 

Lately, I've been waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle for no good reason.  So, I feel tired when I go in to work, and my productivity is down until lunch time.  It doesn't help that I am naturally awake late in the evening, and the effects of sleep deprivation have set in.

- - - - - -

When I was dating XGFJ, I always had problems with her nestling in my arm in bed.  It is not a romantic problem - it's an issue with RQS as well, but she accepts that I will need to shift my body now and then to keep comfortable.  The difference is simple - we communicate better now.  My previous relationship failed because of poor communication, and I wish it had ended earlier, so that we could have stayed close friends. 

- - - - - -

Going away for a short trip has its own problems.  In my case, if I don't bring my CPAP machine with me, I will fall back to having my sleep apnea cause me problems. When I was with XGFJ, she noted that the machine trained my subconscious to keep my airways unobstructed.  RQS notices that I sleep better with the machine, and has no problem with my use of the machine.  

- - - - - -

Even when all things are going right, there's a part of me that's restless.  If no one is with me, this is not an issue.  But, if someone is staying over, I can't just get up and put my thoughts into this blog.  Yet, I have less and less to say on a regular basis, and I am thinking of giving this blog a break for a while.  (I'll bet that FCP will be happy with that, as it was my previous blog that caused our rift (and, according to FCP, signaled the end of our relationship to XGFJ.))

- - - - - -

Luckily, I can get my sleep on weekends.  It's not enough.  But it will have to do until I retire.

I feel like I've been running on empty for a while.

 

If I can say anything about my life lately, it's that I always to feel sleep deprived during the week.  For the past two days, I've taken a nap shortly after I got home and have awakened too late to get much of anything done.  Luckily, I had enough broken sleep to have enough energy to get through the day without feeling that I need a nap while at work.

- - - - - -

Strangely enough, I will miss having a place to go to when I eventually leave my job.  The people are a nice bunch, even though they don't have much time to be social. The place is LGBT friendly, and I have never noticed anyone saying negative about me or others in the LGBT community that is related to our gender issues.   Yet, I will enjoy having time back in my life to do things.  And, even more importantly, I will be able to enjoy reading books again.

I've noticed changes affecting my health that I want to discuss with my doctor next week.  These changes are likely related to two things: my age, and the toll that an 8 hour/day grunt job does to my body.  Last year at this time, I'd have no problem going on a hike with DS.  Today, I think I'd feel winded early on.  This bothers me a bit.  I'd like to break the habit of drinking 4+ cups of coffee (or its equivalent) on a daily basis.  Unfortunately, I can't do this while I need caffeine's stimulant effect to make it through the work day.

Sooner or later, something's got to give.  And I'm hoping that I will feel comfortable bailing out of my job before that time comes....

I just have no energy anymore

 

I have so many things to take care of these days, but I have no energy to do them.  I wonder if it is my not getting enough sleep, or something else.

- - - - - -

Throughout the day, I was doing whatever I could to stay awake.  I was finding that my body wasn't liking the routine of sitting at my workstation for hours at a time.  So, 4:30 didn't come quick enough for me (and the rest of the people at the office). But I was still tired after I got home, and ended up napping a little after cooking a couple of hamburgers for dinner.

While this was going on, I was supposed to call CWS to chat and figure out when the next time was that we could get together.  That didn't happen.  Additionally, FH was pestering about getting together.  She hadn't seen me in a while, and I think she was trying to get a ride for some shopping she wanted to do.  (After making noises a couple of weeks ago about the Omicron variant making NYC too dangerous to visit, she wanted to walk around a mall on Long Island.)  I mentioned Omicron, and suggested just dinner somewhere, or meeting next week.  And she countered with a grocery shopping expedition at Trader Joe's.  She was a little upset that I didn't jump at seeing her, but I needed a day to myself to recharge - and that was my plan for the first day of a weekend.

Dealing with women was not the only thing I had to do.  I still need to call NCL in regard to missing Latitude Point credits.  I still want to contact a woman from OK Cupid who is not a match for me, but who could be a great friend.  (We've chatted before, but cultural issues would make romance impossible.)  Then, I still have tickets to a Darlene Love concert to buy.  None of the many things I wanted to accomplish after work got done.  And I have to deal with Laundry tomorrow.  AARGH!

- - - - - -

Although I can easily switch between Mario and Marian modes these days, I often wish I could stay in Marian mode longer than I do.  But then, I'd never be able to date.  I'm willing to make this compromise in order to have a chance at romance. And, I'm just as willing to split my time in each mode, so that I can have romance.  

The big question is: How much energy do I have left in life?

My day overfloweth

 

As many of my readers are well aware, I normally go through the week with a bit of sleep deprivation.  Today was one of those days where I could have used another two or three hours of sleep.  So I had to fight off the impulse to sleep much of the day.

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One of the things that is a blessing and a curse of my job is the repetitive nature of many of its tasks.  Today, I shifted between two of these tasks.  The first task involved finding index documentation not captured during image scanning and insuring that each document had a clean index before deleting the indexing page from the document.  The second involved doing manual OCR scan of information found in a document and entering it into a data base.  Neither of these tasks takes much brain work.  So one can easily lose track of time while listening to music on an MP3 player.  Yet, one can that time moves slowly when one has things on her mind.  Because the tasks are so repetitive, one can get into a groove, and start nodding off.  This happens to me often.  So I have developed some tricks to keep from falling asleep on the job.

After 8 hours of pushing keys and moving mouse, I could have very easily fallen asleep.  Unfortunately, I had a co-op board meeting to attend to.  And this took up most of the evening after I got home.  Hopefully, my visit to the land of nod will be better than last night's visit....

You know you're tired when....

 

You know you're tired when you skip lunch at work to close your eyes and rest for 30 minutes.  I was fighting hard to stay awake, and was using every trick in the book to stay awake enough to do my job until quitting time.  Luckily, I was able to catch a second wind with the help of coffee, and catch up on things before leaving for the day. By the time I got home, I was ready to fall asleep.  Yet, I couldn't pass out until talking with MWL.  And even, half asleep, I was able to make plans with her and CWS for the weekend.

By the time I fell asleep for the first time at night, it was roughly 9pm.  But I kept waking up several times during the night.  Hopefully, I'll be able to be wide awake for work during the day....

Another Short Post

 

I don't have much to say today, save that I was fighting to stay awake after my third cup of coffee wore off.  Somehow, it's either my costume jewelry or my outfits that are getting positive comments from women, and I'm glad to receive them.  My sense of style is maturing, and I'm glad to be out there in the world.

With this being said, I decided to go through some storage containers to look for some dresses I received in Universal Standard's yearly Mystery Box sale.  I figure that I'll wear one of them to work in the morning (with a pair of leggings).  But if I don't like what I see, I'll switch to one of the dresses I've already worn with leggings, and enjoy the rest of the day.

Right now, I figure that I can safely wear dresses as over long tunics and fit in.  This is not the kind of place where women wear dresses in the winter - except, maybe, the way I'll be wearing them for a few weeks.  After that, it's back to trouser like garments again, with tunic tops above.

Thankfully, I'll be back in dresses for my next cruise....